Things are Not What They Seem
by thestaggofdestiny
Summary: Nikki Bells is confused. Very confused. There's a world of Gods? One of them is her father? What? Previously called Thief of the Century
1. Chapter One: Introduction

**AN: I have started to revise and combine the chapters of this story because the old ones were painfully short. I also renamed this fic because the old name didn't fit, in my opinion. Please don't hate me.**

_Disclaimer: I don't own anything written by Rick Riordan._

Chapter One: Introduction

I raced up the stairs of the apartment building and into apartment 249. Home. I slammed the door shut behind me and leaned against it, breathing hard

"What did you take this time, Nikki?" my mom sighed. She knows she'd never be able to stop me from stealing. It's in my blood. A sort of family thing. From my dad, of course. Mom doesn't "engage in criminal activity". Her exact words.

"This." I held up a cigarette lighter triumphantly. "They never even saw me near it." I headed towards my room.

"You know, I never understood why thieves like you and your father had to have a collection of stolen stuff," Mom said, following me. "With him, it was pocket knives, and with you, it's cigarette lighters."

I placed the plain black lighter in an empty spot on one of my many shelves.

"The satisfaction of knowing that you got away," I replied, surveying my extensive collection. Walking over to a far shelf and picking up a pink lighter I said, "I took this when I was three years old from a gas station. No one saw me take it." I set it down and sat on my bed. "That was the beginning of my thieving career. From then on, I stole pretty much anything small enough to safely carry off without being noticed. Yes, is illegal, but there is one rule I have never broken. That rule is: Never lie to Mom."

"True, true," Mom laughed. "You've never lied to me, not once."

"Never, in all 14 years of my life, have I lied to or deceived you, my mother."

Mom laughed again. "Yes, yes. I know, Nikki. You've told me this at least once each week this month. I know you haven't lied to me."

I laughed as well. "Yeah, sorry."

"No need to be sorry."

I laughed again and sat down as Mom stood up.

"I'm gonna go get started on dinner, okay? Don't get into too much trouble."

I gave her a thumbs-up as I flopped over onto my side on my bed. She left the room and I sighed. I hate doing this to Mom. It must be so stressful for her to have a thief for a kid, but I can't help it. It's just what I do.

**AN: I didn't really change the first chapter because it seemed okay. Plus, it's only the introduction. Please review!**


	2. Chapter Two: Only the Beginning

**AN: Okay, so, I combined a few chapters and changed a few minor errors. I hope you like it!**

_Disclaimer: I own nothing that Rick Riordan wrote._

Chapter Two: Only the Beginning

I sighed as I walked into my second class of the day. English.

"Take out your copies of _Great Expectations,_" droned Mrs. Taylor.

I sighed yet again as I complied. We read another chapter and attempted to analyze it. This whole thing was kinda difficult for me to do because of my ADHD and dyslexia. I glanced down at the page and attempted to decipher the jumble of letters on the page. I shook my head. Impossible.

At the end of class Mrs. Taylor beckoned me over to her desk. Laurel, my only friend lingered by the door, reluctant to go without me. I gestured to her to say she didn't have to wait. She hesitated, but left.

"Your English grade is less than satisfactory," the teacher scolded.

"I'm sorry," I apologized, slipping a half used pack of Post-Its into the pocket of my jeans.

"I'm afraid I can't let this slide by," she warned, seeming to change. Her red hair turned to flames and her skin paled even more than normal. She began to advance towards me in an uneven limp.

I looked down and nearly screamed. One of her leg was that of a donkey and the other was metal! I ran out of the classroom and straight into Laurel.

"Run!" I yelled. "Mrs. Taylor's turned into some sort of monster donkey fire metal thingy!"

She started to run down the hall with me and said, "Monster donkey fire metal thingy? You mean she's an empousa ?"

"Um, what?" I asked, still running from the thing that had once been my English teacher.

"An empousa. A Greek monster," Laurel clarified.

"Oh," was my only response. And we ran, ran out of the school, down a few streets. We ran until we were 100% sure we'd lost Mrs. Taylor.

As we slowed to a walk, I pulled out the Post-Its that I'd stolen and looked at what was written on the top one. 'Kill Nikolette Bells'

I showed it to Laurel. "What the hell is this?" I almost screeched as I waved the yellow paper in her face. "Kill Nikolette Bells! Kill! KILL!"

"Calm down, Nikki. She's a monster, you're a demigod, of course she wants to kill you, " Laurel said in what was supposed to be a comforting tone.

"A what!"

"A monster," she said calmly. "A Greek-"

I cut her off. "No! What did you say I was?"

"A demigod, the offspring of a Greek god and a mortal. I'd say that your father is Hermes because of the stealing thing."

I just stared at her. "Not good?" she asked timidly. I just kept staring. "Oh Hades! I'm a tree! I'm not that good with human emotions!"

I stared at Laurel some more. "A tree?"

"Yes, a tree! I'm a dryad, you're a demigod, Mrs. Taylor's an empousa, and I was sent to take you to Camp Half-Blood where you'll be safe!"

"Wait a second! Hold up! Stop right there!" I flailed my arm around in confusion and stopped walking. Laurel stopped as well and turned to look at me.

"What?" she asked sounding a little scared of what I might say.

"What do you mean 'take me to Camp Half-Blood'? And how are you a tree? And me? The daughter of a god? How could I be related to a god?" I got more and more panicked as i went on. I had no clue what was going on here, but I wanted to find out.

"Ummm….Camp Half-Blood is the only safe place for demigods, um, i guess I'm sort of tied to the tree. If the tree dies, I die and if I die the tree die, so I sort of am the tree, and yeah, you. The daughter of a god. Most likely Hermes. And well, as for the 'how could you be related' part...I assume you know how babies are made..." she trailed off, looking at me expectantly.

"Of course I do!" I exclaimed, still exasperated. "But gods don't exist! Do they?"

Laurel just nodded. I sat down in shock and, of course, began freaking out.

"What do you mean gods exist? They can't exist! And on top of that, you want to tell me I'm related to one? What? Was my dad a god or something?" I laughed, not expecting her response.

"Yes," she replied. "Hermes. Because of, you know, the stealing thing."

"Hold up, Dad? Hermes?" I shook my head. "No. Just no."

Laurel looked around nervously. "Um, we should get going. Now that you know who you are, monsters will be able to find you much easier than before."

I didn't like the sound of more monsters, so I nodded and stood. "This doesn't mean I fully accept what you're trying to tell me, but where are we going?"

"Camp Half-Blood. It's in New York," she replied, standing from where she'd sat during my whole denying speech.

"New York!" I shrieked. "How are we going to get to New York from Illinois without a car?"

"By train," was Laurel's reply, and we set off on our journey.

"There it is!" Laurel exclaimed, pointing a large pine tree with- was that a dragon wrapped around it? I looked closer. Yep. A purple dragon. And...was that...? Yes, yes was. That was the actual Golden Fleece.

"I'm done!" I proclaimed, turning around. "I'm going back to Chicago. This is too much."

Laurel grabbed my arm. "What? You haven't even gone into camp yet!" She pulled me back.

"Dragon! Golden Fleece!" I freed myself from her grip and started walking away.

"Nikki!" I heard Laurel yell. "Someone! Help! I've got a demigod refusing to come into camp!" I just continued on, determined to get back to Chicago.

I got maybe one hundred yards before I felt two sets of hands grab my arms and begin dragging me backwards.

"Hey!" I yelped in surprise. A half-goat guy who looked extremely nervous and a determined looking Laurel were pulling me towards the pine tree.

Once we had passed it, they dropped me and the goat guy ran off. Laurel stood over me and tossed her green hair over her shoulder.

"That wasn't so bad, was it, Nikki?" she asked as if I was a five year old.

"You and that goat guy dragged me! I'm sure that that constitutes as kidnapping!" I stood, brushing the grass and dirt off my jeans.

"That was Cy. He's a satyr who seems to be making it his mission to be the nicest stalker a tree could have."

"Whatever. What now?"

Laurel started walking towards a big blue house. "The Big House"

I followed. On the porch was a man in a wheelchair who looked extremely worried about something.

"Chiron! Here's the demigod!" Laurel chirped, gesturing to me.

"The one who didn't want to come into camp?" the old man gave an amused smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Dragon. Golden Fleece. Talking trees. Goat dude," I muttered under my breath.

"The orientation video has unfortunately been destroyed, so Nikki here will not be able to see it." He gave Laurel a look that I couldn't interpret, and left.

I looked at Laurel, who seemed to be scared of something. I didn't know what it was that she was worried about, so I asked her. All she did was look at me and say, "Later".

She lead me towards a old-looking cabin with a faded caceadus over the door.

"This is the Hermes cabin," she said. "I think that Hermes is your father, but we can't be one hundred percent sure until you're claimed."

"Claimed?" I asked. "What do you mean by 'claimed'?"

"Claiming is when a godly parent sends a sign that a demigod is their child. It can be anything. One time, a son of Apollo got claimed by him starting to glow in this golden light, and whenever he tried to talk, he would sing instead."

"But Hermes wouldn't something like that, would he?" I asked, worried about what would happen to me.

"No, he'll probably just put a glowing caceadus over your head."

I was still confused. I mean, a glowing caceadus? What kind of people were the gods? Couldn't they just appear and say 'that there is my kid' and point to the kid in question?

We walked in and were greeted by a crowd of mischievous looking kids. My siblings. Yay! Now I can get pick-pocketed by people who are related to me! I made a mental note to sleep with one eye open just in case.

They all stared at me. I nervously took my favorite lighter that I kept with me at all times out of my pocket and clicked it on and off.

"Where'd you get that?" one kid asked.

"Dad gave it to me..." I held it up nervously, the silver lighter glinting in the light, the emeralds that were the eyes of the snakes wrapped around the cacaedus sparkling.

"She's definitely our sister," another kid said.

Great. My parentage was determined by a birthday present.

There was a long silence before one of my half-brothers spoke up.

"Seeing as we are the head counselors of the Hermes Cabin," he said,gesturing to himself and another boy who looked similar to him. "It is our responsibility to give a rundown of what's going on in the godly world right now."

"Okay…" I said as I followed them off to the side where we could speak away from the others.

I looked at my half-brothers in confusion. "Gaea? Giants? Romans? Percy Jackson? What?" Personally, I thought that my last question, the "what", summed up what I was thinking perfectly.

The Stolls shared an unreadable look, then Connor replied, "Yeah, the Romans are going to attack any day now."

"I don't know why Dad sent you here," Travis added. "It would probably be safer for you in the mortal world."

"Um...two reasons that wouldn't work," I interjected. "One: my teacher was a monster. Literally. And two: you can only steal so much from the same 7-11 before you get caught."

"You got caught stealing from a 7-11?" Travis asked.

"Well, no," I replied. "But it was only a matter of time."

We stood in an awkward silence for a few moments, me playing with my birthday lighter and the Stolls looking awkwardly at the scenery.

"Well," I said abruptly. "Good talk, good talk. I'll see you two later." Then I left before anything else could be said.

I wandered towards the camp store which, from what I could infer, no one actually bought anything from. Stuff was mostly just stolen by my half-siblings. Anyways, I wandered in, surprising the satyr who was manning (or was it satyring) the counter.

"C-can I help you?" he stammered. I looked closer and realized that he was the satyr who'd helped Laurel forcibly drag me into camp. What was his name again?

"Yeah. If you don't see anything for the next fifteen minutes, I'll...what do you want me to do?"

"Um...c-could you p-p-possibly, if it isn't t-too much trouble, g-get someone t-to reassign me t-to a d-d-different job?" he stammered.

"Yeah..." I looked at his name badge. "Cy. Of course. Well, just as long as, for the next fifteen minutes, you are blind."

Cy the satyr nodded excitedly and turned around so that he couldn't see anything that was happening. I went to work.

I walked around, taking small things such as a toothbrush, a Camp Half-Blood shirt, new shorts, a hairbrush, and a few other items. Basically, I got the essentials. As soon as I was done, I left with a, "Bye! I'll talk to someone soon about your reassignment!"

"Bye!" I heard behind me as I left.

I went to the Hermes cabin and dumped my newly acquired stuff in the locker at the foot of my bed, not bothering to organize anything. Afterwards, I flopped onto said bed, the events of the day finally catching up to me.

I was woken by Sammi, one of my half-sisters, shaking me.

"Rise and shine, Nikki!" the teenaged girl chirped. "It's time for you to be officially claimed!"

I groaned in protest, but got up anyways. Changing into the clothes I stole, I tried to mentally prepare myself for being stared at. It didn't work. My mental pep talks never did. They mostly ended with me feeling worse than when I started. Unfortunately, that was the case now.

A followed the overexcited Sammi to the campfire and as soon as I stepped into the firelight, a glowing caceadus popped into existence over my head. It literally popped. I could hear the comical sound as it occurred.

Chiron introduced me, and I sat down with the other cabin eleveners sing Greek camp songs, which was kinda weird. I mean, Grandma putting on armor? Isn't, for most of the kids here, Hera their grandmother? It would be kind of odd seeing the queen of the gods getting ready for battle.

I mentioned this to Kyle, my ten-year-old half-brother, and he just laughed it off saying, "That's just how it is. Weird songs, marshmallows, and Clovis always sleeping." He pointed to a napping guy under the Hypnos banner. I shrugged, letting the subject drop. Whatever. Kyle made it sound like they hated change or something. Maybe they did? Whatever. I guess I could deal with it.

After the campfire, all the Hermes kids went back to cabin eleven. I trailed along behind, thinking about nothing in particular, unconsciously flicking the lighter on and off.

**AN: Please review! 3**


	3. Chapter Three: Dream Thief

**AN: Here's the third chapter! Enjoy!**

_Disclaimer: No matter how much I wish I did, I own nothing that Rick Riordan wrote._

Chapter Three: Dream Thief

That night, I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Unfortunately, I didn't get much rest.

I found myself on the bank of a chocolate river. As I slowly stood, I heard a voice behind me.

"Why are we in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory?" my dad asked.

I turned to see him standing underneath a gummy bear tree. "I don't know. You're the god here, aren't you?"

"It's your dream. You control the setting," he laughed.

"Okay then…" I concentrated on my bedroom back in the apartment where I'd lived with Mom. When I reopened my eyes, I was standing next to my bed and Dad was sitting at my desk where my laptop sat open, showing my blue background. I turned to Dad. "So, why do you want to talk to me?" I asked, hands on hips, staring at him expectantly.

"I was going to ask how you've been, but as I said, this is your dream now. You're controlling it. As soon as you got here, you hijacked the dream," he replied, spinning in circles in my swivel chair.

"Wait a second. I stole this dream? How can you steal a dream?"

"Normally, no demigods except for Hypnos's children can control dreams if a god is there, but you, well, I guess you can't refuse a challenge when it comes to thievery," Dad informed me.

"I guess..." I trailed off, thinking. "Does that mean I can steal other people's dreams now?"

"Possibly," was Dad's reply.

I giggled like a little girl and clapped my hand together. "Let's go hijack some dreams!"

"What have I done," Dad muttered, but I was too excited to care.

"I've heard a lot about Percy Jackson so let's steal his!"

As soon as I said this, the setting changed to a cliff overlooking the sea. A dark-haired teenaged boy was standing at the edge, looking confused.

"Hi!" I called out, catching his attention.

He turned around. "What? Who- Lord Hermes? What are you doing here?"

"I'm just along for the ride. My daughter stole control of the dream I sent her, and now she's stolen yours."

"You're shorter than I thought you'd be," I remarked, studying the famous hero.

"What? How? Why?" he sputter, obviously confused.

"I'm Nikki Bells. I stole your dream. I have no idea how, but I did. Now, it was nice meeting you, but I have other dreams to steal." I turned to my father and said, "You can either stay here, come with me, or go home. Just note that you can't do anything to stop me from stealing dreams."

Dad just sighed and disappeared, leaving me and a very confused Percy behind.

"I wonder if I can steal a god's dream?" I mused, before disappearing into the next dream.

When I appeared in the next dream, I had to close my eyes or get blinded by the golden light that shone from everywhere. I'm not kidding. There seemed to be no source. It was just there.

"Can you dim the lights please?" I called. "I don't want to go blind."

I waited a few seconds, but got no reply. Shrugging, I changed the setting. I opened my eyes to see a river. I was beneath a bridge in the middle of nowhere.

"Hey!" yelled an unfamiliar voice. "What happened?"

"I saved my eyes from permanent blindness!"

A teenaged boy approached from my right. "Who are you?"

"Nikki Bells. Who are you?" I replied.

Instead of answering, he just laughed. "So you're Hermes's kid! He warned me about you!"

"Who are you?" I asked. "Are you..?" I studied the boy. Blond, the golden light, close ish to my dad…. "Apollo?"

"Yep!"

"I stole a god's dream. I actually stole a god's dream! This is so cool!"

"Why did you steal my dream?" he asked. "It was a good dream."

"It was a blinding dream. I couldn't see anything."

"It's my dream! You have no right to go around changing it!" he exclaimed.

"I stole it!" I yelled back. "It's mine now!"

"Woah! Why are you yelling?" he asked.

"You yelled first."

He shrugged as if that were a perfectly acceptable answer. "Fair enough."

"What the hell was that blinding light dream thing about? I almost went blind!" I asked.

"None of your business," was his reply.

I shrugged. "Okay, then. Bye." And then I disappeared.

I woke up with a huge headache. It felt like Athena was trying to escape from inside my skull, like she had from Zeus's.

"Dear freaking gods! I am never doing that again!" I groaned, sitting up. Today was not looking good.

I only had about five seconds to wallow in my excruciating pain before Sammi, my overexcited younger half-sister, leaped on top of me shrieking, "Wake up, Nikki!"

I groaned and rolled over, dumping her onto the floor. "Noooo..." I muttered into my pillow.

Sammi bounced back up from the floor. (Where does she find all that energy?) She shook my shoulder saying, "Get up or you'll miss breakfast!"

I shifted so I was facing her. "I have a headache," I whined. "I don't wanna get up!"

"Too bad!" Sammi declared, grabbing my arm and attempting to pull me upright. I shook her off and sat up by myself, pain shooting through my skull.

"Ow!" I exclaimed, grabbing my head.

"What did you do?" Sammi asked.

"I-ouch! I stole some dreams."

"You stole some dreams?" she asked skeptically.

"Yes. Dad tried to send me a dream, but I hijacked it. Then I stole Percy Jackson's dream, then Apollo's dream," I replied, wincing in pain.

"Maybe you should visit the Hypnos cabin," Sammi suggested. "They might be able to help since it's dream-related."

"Maybe," I said, getting up. "I'll go there after-" I stumbled, catching myself on the bed frame. "After I get dressed."

After a fifteen minutes filled with stumbles, trips, and getting ready for the day, I headed out, Sammi insisting on coming with me "in case I fell". Her words, not mine.

Demigods and satyrs stared as we crossed camp, me stumbling and cursing and Sammi skipping along beside me.

When we got to the Hypnos cabin, the headache intensified.

"Holy frickity-frack!" I exclaimed. "That hurts!"

"What's wrong?" Sammi asked, her worry evident in her voice.

"Nothing! Just my head splitting open!"

"Oh! Um, Clovis? Someone! Nikki needs help! She had some funky dreams!"

I shot Sammi a sarcastic look. "Funky?" I gasped out. "That's the word you use?"

"Stop criticizing my word choice and get moving!" She dragged me into the cabin, as I was barely able to stand.

The last thing I remembered was Sammi shouting for help before I passed out.

I woke up to the sound of someone's voice saying, "This is actually pretty cool."

"What's actually pretty cool?" I asked, sitting up.

"You're my half-niece. Your mom's a daughter of Hypnos," replied the guy standing next to Sammi.

"Well Uncle Whatever your name is, what's the verdict?"

"You inherited your mom's dream powers, and, combined with your status as a daughter of Hermes, it created an odd mix of abilities. Hypothetically, you're able to take over or "steal" any dream while you're asleep."

"Okay, so, why the headaches?"

"It was the first time you've ever done this, right?" Uncle No Name asked.

I nodded and he continued. "It won't happen again. By now, your brain has adjusted to the sensation of stretching beyond its normal limits."

"So, no more feeling like my head's gonna split open?"

He nodded.

"Cool!" I got up and dragged Sammi out of the Hypnos cabin shouting, "Thanks!" as we went.

I stopped once we reached the empty campfire area.

"My mom's a demigod? Does that mean that I'm technically more god than human? Am I, like, a semi-god or something? More than just demigod?" I asked Sammi, kind of confused and a little bit angry at the fact that Mom had never shared this information with me.

Sammi shrugged. "I don't know. I guess the only person who would know is your mom."

"That's it!" I snapped. "I'm gonna call my mom! Do you know anyone who has a phone?"

"Chiron might have one."

I whirled around, determined to call my mom and find out what the heck I was.

"Chiron!" I yelled, as I approached the Big House, Sammi close behind me.

Chiron wheeled out onto the porch, a confused expression on his face.

"Yes?" he asked.

"I need a phone! I need to have a word with my mother!"

"Technology tends to be dangerous for demigods-" Chiron started to say, but I cut him off.

"I know you have a phone, and I want talk to my mom! Please!"

By this time, I was almost crying, so Chiron took pity on me and led me into the Big House and into a room with a computer and a telephone. After a warning to never take anything out if this room, he and Sammi left, leaving me alone to call Mom.

**AN: I know it's a bit of a cliffhanger, but please just bear with me. I'll have some more up as soon as possible. Please review!**


	4. Sorry

Sorry, everyone. This story is going to be discontinued. If anyone wants to adopt it, PM me. This story will be taken down on May 16, 2016.

-thestaggofdestiny


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